KETCHIKAN — Photographer Heidi Poet has created an exhibit to illuminate the personal experience of mental illness through curator Jeff Fitzwater’s “La Folie Circulaire: A Journey Into Bipolar Disorder” Main Street Gallery show, which opened April 5.

Modeling in Poet’s photos are Austin Hays and Cat Hindman, both who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Poet said.

Hindman, who became a close friend of Poet’s when both had roles in the 2010 First City Players show “Cinderella,” said the exhibit is a true collaboration.

KETCHIKAN — Donita O’Dell, founder of the Southeast Organization for Animals, said she likes to envision Southeast Alaska as one big community with several neighborhoods.

“I’ve been thinking about it for probably four years,” O’Dell said.

O’Dell was an employee at Ketchikan Gateway Borough Animal Protection for about four years, and now works for the Alaska Marine Highway System. She founded SOFA, a nonprofit organization, in December.

KETCHIKAN — The dreary, damp climate of Ketchikan seems to have grown a flourishing crop of quilters.

Rainy Day Quilters guild vice-president Marva Otos said the organization has about 110 members, and long-time member Nancy Mitchel said there also are “tons of people” who quilt in town who aren’t members.

Rainy Day Quilters is holding its 22nd annual quilt show, “Quilting in the Rain,” Feb. 16 and 17, featuring quilts of many patterns, sizes, methods and fabrics.

“There will be lots of interesting stuff in the show,” Mitchel said.

KETCHIKAN — When Ketchikan High School senior Joe Chadwell watched the deadline for his Eagle Scout rank pass him by, he was disappointed, but he didn’t stop. He switched gears and roared ahead with what had been planned as his project.

He had the bones of his plan laid out, and he knew people were depending on him.

“The biggest thing is I like finishing something I start,” he told the Ketchikan Daily News. “I hate telling someone I’ll do something, then not follow through.”